Toothy Herman brishes past Maurice to stand just inside the door of this latest room. He is holding a big loose stone, which he hurls into the room.

He turns to Maurice. "Traps?" he says.

Maurice, Avery, Girt and Toothy Herman move into this new room.

"Did I not tell you there was nothing here but bones?" Maurice says, kicking at a loose stone. He walks directly over to the other door, and with no precaution at all, hauls it open.

Maurice passes his torch to Avery, and standing to one side of the door, flings open the door to the south. Avery is next to him with his hammer in his non-torch hand. Maurice has a rock in his sling. The others are five feet further down the corridor.

Avery is so terrified that he's shaking, clutching his hammer to his chest. Giant nuzzles his leg and pads down the corridor to the left-leading passage and stops. All four of their group move just past Huddlestone, and Girt puts a hand on Avery's shoulder. "Don't worry, Ave. If there was troub...

"By the Fates!" exclaims Toothy Herman, "That archway won't explore itself, Maurice!" His words reverberate through the chamber. Maurice, beyond disgusted with the bizarre old man, prods the two young men ahead of him through the vaulted archway to the east, Herman not far behind...

Girt gets a hold of the rope with one hand, and tries to hold Giant under his other hand, using his legs as the primary means of slowing his descent down the rope. Toothy Herman and Maurice go after Huddlestone, and Maurice takes his torch back and makes a circuit of the room, first examining carefu...

Herman turns, gets Avery by the arm, and pulls the growing-paler-by-the-minute young man over to the hole. He puts the rope in Avery's hand, takes the torch from Maurice's hand and sticks it in Avery's mouth. "By the Fates, you'll live to see the surface again, boy. Now, down you go," Herm...

The gypsy, Maurice, having lit his own torch, moves to the iron tripod to test both the rope and the tackle with a surreptitious tug. Toothy Herman joins him, having procured a loose stone from the floor, which he dumps down the hole. The halfling looks at the haggard old man with surprise, his ugly...

Toothy Herman grinned at Girt and Avery, his mouth full of slim yellow teeth, more than Girt had ever seen on any other person in his short life. Herman shot his elbow into Girt’s ribs playfully. “So the future IS a pit, boys!” the old man exulted, belly laughing until he started coughing. He worked...